Part of being a good friend is not abandoning them when they face a struggle. It can be really hard to watch a friend make bad choices and see them face the consequences. Often it seems like you can’t get through to them and they won’t listen to your advice. If you want to really help your friends, here are some tips for supporting a friend.
Steps
5
Effective
Advice
to Giving
listen
1
Unless your friend feels like you’ve
heard them and understood what they are saying, they will never trust the advice you are giving. You must take time to gain an understanding of where they are coming from. Ask them questions to show you really desire to understand. Then state back to them what you’ve heard them say by summarizing, “So what I hear you saying is..Is that right?”
encourage
2
Before diving into any
advice, encourage them in some way. Unless you start with encouragement, they may be stuck in such a negative place that they have no hope of things ever changing, and when you offer them advice they might not believe they are capable of acting on any of it. However, offering encouragement opens the